Episode Report Card Sobell: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
By Sobell | Season 3 | Episode 1 | Aired on 09.16.2007
Back inside the prison, a couple of inmates have started a percussion group. I bet the prison's black-market trade in acetaminophen is lively. Michael heads to what is presumably his bunk in cell 44, looks at the angel and devil drawings on opposite walls, and makes as if to settle down for a nap, but he's interrupted by a frame-up job in progress. A beefy dude we saw making eyes at Lechero earlier in the courtyard is accusing Michael of stealing his stash, and lo, it is secreted beneath the mattress. Michael gives Lechero, his neck-snapping stooge, and his beefy stooge a withering look and decrees, "That's bull." Kudos to Wentworth Miller for managing to append "...shit" to the end of that sentence without saying a word.
Lechero, who seems a bit of a drama llama despite all that yoga, grabs the stash of drugs and huffs, "You're both scumbags!" It's no "I'm shocked -- shocked! -- to find that gambling is going on here," but it's a respectable runner-up. The druggie promises Michael that they're not done and lurches off. Michael is wearing a look like, Could this day get worse?
Well, it could. Linc has just gotten a call from the constable with whom he spoke earlier, and it seems that a young American woman matching Dr. Sara's description has just turned up in the morgue. Linc stops for a moment, looking stunned and guilty.
Back in the prison, Bellick and Stringy are lining up for whatever soup some inmate is dishing out, but the guy refuses to serve them. To add insult to injury, he's busy munching on a poultry drumstick while he tells them he won't serve them. Stringy begs, "Please -- I haven't eaten in the week since I've been here. Please." You know, I am totally curious as to exactly what Stringy did to get himself thrown into Sona. Do you suppose he was another Bellick, all gleeful bullying and petty crime, until getting thrown in with the worst of the worst? Or do you suppose he's a very unlucky American tourist who happened to underestimate the penalty for something like, say, scoring a kilo of cocaine? I want some Stringy backstory! Anyway, the dinner pot despot deigns to drop his gnawed drumstick into Stringy's empty tin plate. Stringy looks at Bellick in despair.
We cut to him and Bellick walking through the prison corridor while Stringy moans, "They expect us to forage -- like dogs! I'll die! I'll literally die!" He breaks down sobbing. Bellick looks deeply uncomfortable, but manages a "Hang in there, man." This does not soothe Stringy. Wild with despair, he decides that he'll pop out of the window in his cell and run toward the fence for freedom.